African Players Feel Backlash Over Ebola

African footballers based at European clubs, especially those traveling back to the continent from international duty, began on Friday to feel the backlash from fears over the Ebola virus outbreak.

A Sierra Leone player has been asked to stay away from his Greek club after competing in African Nations Cup qualifiers while the former French champions Montpellier ordered a player to have medical tests on his return from the continent.

The Ivory Coast full-back Siaka Tiéné, who played in two matches against the Democratic Republic of Congo over the last week, was asked to undergo a medical examination on his return to Montpellier on Friday following trips to Kinshasa and Abidjan.

“For him to be examined seems to be a prudent and logical move,” the club’s coach, Roland Courbis, told Radio Monte Carlo.

John Kamara has been told by the Greek second division club Lamia to stay away for the next three weeks after he returned from playing for Sierra Leone against Cameroon.

Sierra Leone is one of three West African nations at the epicentre of the worst outbreak of the disease on record which has killed more than 4,500 people but their matches were held in Cameroon, where there have been no reports of the haemorrhagic fever, because of a ban on Sierra Leone hosting internationals.